Low turnout for primary elections

Indiana communities reported record low or near-record low voter turnout for the primary election, which featured few high-profile races and plenty of uncontested ones.\nThe Indiana Secretary of State's Elections Division does not statistically compare statewide primary election turnout from year to year because of annual variations in the number of races.\nBut the dearth of phone calls the division received from county officials and voters during Tuesday's primary indicated extremely low interest, said Brad King, the division's co-director.\n"I haven't heard anyone call in to say they had heavier-than-expected turnout," King said Wednesday. "It was unusually quiet here."\nIn Marion County, the state's most populous, officials said about 9.9 percent of registered voters turned out to select Democratic and Republican candidates for Indianapolis mayor, the city-county council and other offices.\nIn Allen County, which includes Fort Wayne, turnout was estimated at 12 percent, likely the county's lowest turnout ever by percentage, said Andrew Downs, a county Democratic election board appointee.\n"It's very disappointing to think that in other countries people stand in line days to vote," said Steve Shine, Allen County Republican chairman. "I wonder sometimes if people take democracy for granted."\nBartholomew County's 9.6 percent turnout beat the county's previous primary election low of 12.75 percent, set in 1999.\nKing, of the state election office, said Tuesday's primary featured an unusual number of losses by mayoral incumbents in cities including Terre Haute, Seymour, Mount Vernon and Linton.\nThis year's primary also marked further movement in Indiana counties' shift from lever voting machines to optical-scanning systems, with Marion County making the switch Tuesday.\nThe percentage of Indiana voters casting ballots using the old machines has declined from 21 percent in last year's primary to just 2 percent this year, King said. Just five of Indiana's 92 counties continue to use lever machines.